For Immediate Release Under Strict Embargo Until 10

INSIDE THE WAVE

BY THE LATE POET AND AUTHOR,

HELEN DUNMORE,NAMED

2017 COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR

• Inside the Wave, Dunmore’s tenth and final collection of poetry published just two months before her death in June 2017, announced as winner of the Costa Book of the Year
• The judges called the collection ‘a final, great achievement’ and celebrated ‘an astonishing set of poems’
• Costa Short Story Award won by primary school teacherLuan Goldie from East London

London, 19.30pm 30th January 2018: Inside the Wave by the late poet and authorHelen Dunmorehas been named winner of the 2017 Costa Book of the Year. The collection, Dunmore’s tenth, explores the borderline between the living and the dead - the underworld and the human living world – and the exquisitely intense being of both, and includes her final poem, ‘Hold out your arms’, written shortly before her death in June 2017, aged 64.

Dunmore is the second writer to take the overall prize posthumously in the Award’s 46-year history. Ted Hughes posthumously won the Poetry Award and Book of the Year in 1998 for Birthday Letters.

The announcement was made this evening (Tuesday 30th January) at an awards ceremony held at Quaglino’s in central London whereDunmore’s son, Patrick Charnley, accepted a cheque for £30,000, from Dominic Paul, Managing Director of Costa.

Wendy Holden, chair of the final judges, said: “We all felt this is a modern classic; a fantastic collection, life affirming and uplifting. The poems carry powerful messages that speak to all of us.”

Holden chaired a final judging panel that included Contributing Editor to British Vogue, Laura Bailey; author and presenter, Fern Britton; actor Art Malik; BBC presenter and journalist Sophie Raworth; writers Piers Torday, Freya North and Simon Garfield; and poet Moniza Alvi.

Inside the Wave, published by Bloodaxe Books, is the eighth collection of poetry to take the overall prize.Poetry has a strong record in the Costa Book Awards, often winning the overall prize several times in a row. Most recently, Christopher Reid won in 2009 with A Scattering,followed by Jo Shapcott with OfMutabilitya year later in 2010. The 2016 Costa Book of the Year was Days Without End by Sebastian Barry, the first novelist ever to win the Book of the Year twice.

Inside the Wave beat the bookmakers’ favourite, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by bestselling debut novelist Gail Honeyman, family memoir,In the Days of Rain by author and academic Rebecca Stott,Reservoir 13 by novelist Jon McGregor andThe Explorer by children’s author Katherine Rundell for to win the overall prize and a cheque for £30,000 at the awards ceremony.

The Costa Book Awards is the only major UK book prize that is open solely to authors resident in the UK and Ireland and also, uniquely, recognises the most enjoyable books across five categories – First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book - published in the last year.

Originally established in 1971 by Whitbread Plc, Costa announced its takeover of the sponsorship of the UK's most prestigious book prize in 2006. 2017 marks the 46th year of the Book Awards.

Since the introduction of the Book of the Year award in 1985, it has been won twelve times by a novel, five times by a first novel, six times by a biography, eight times by a collection of poetry and twice by a children’s book.

Luan Goldie wins 2017 Costa Short Story Award

Also announced at the ceremony was the winner of the Costa Short Story Award. Primary school teacher and former business journalist, Luan Goldie from Newham in East London, won the public vote and £3,500 for her story, Two Steak Bakes and Two Chelsea Buns. Two runners-up, civil servant Chris Hunter from Teddington in South-West London and poet and short story writer, Frances Ainslie from Dunblane, Perthshire, received £1,000 and £500 respectively.

Established in 2012, thisAward - run in association with the Costa Book Awards but judged independently of the main five-category system – is judged anonymously (ie without the name of the author being known throughout the process). It is for a single, previously unpublished short story of up to 4,000 words written in English by an author aged 18 years or over, and is open to both published and unpublished writers.

A shortlist of three stories was selected by a panel of judges – Sarah Franklin, Joe Haddow, Adele Parks,Simon Trewin and Kit de Waal - and then made available on the Costa Book Awards website for the public to download and vote for their favourite. Costa Managing Director, Dominic Paul, announced the winner and runners-up and presented them with their cheques.

For more information please visit

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For further information,please contact:

Amanda Johnson

Costa Book Awards Press and Publicity

Telephone: 07715 922 180

Email:

Notes for Editors:

About the Costa Book Awards:

• The Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Book Awards, were established in 1971 to encourage, promote and celebrate the best contemporary British writing.
• The total prize fund for the Costa Book Awards – including the Costa Short Story Award - stands at £60,000.
• The award winners from the five categories - Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book - each receive £5,000.
• The overall Costa Book of the Year is selected from the five category Award winners with the winner receiving a further £30,000.

• The 2016 Costa Book of the Year was Days Without Endby Sebastian Barry (Faber).

About Costa:

Founded in London by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1971, Costa is now part of Whitbread PLC.

With over 2,380 coffee shops in the UK and more than 1,300 in 31 international markets we are the fastest-growing coffee shop business in the UK and are proud to be the UK’s favourite coffee shop, having been awarded “Best Branded Coffee Shop Chain in the UK and Ireland" by Allegra Strategies for eight years running (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017).

Looking after coffee-growers is extremely important to us, which is why we established The Costa Foundation, a registered charity with the aim to relieve poverty, advance education and the health and environment of coffee-growing communities around the world. So far, The Costa Foundation has funded the building of 72 schools and improved the social and economic welfare of coffee-growing communities.

Further Background

Inside the Waveby Helen Dunmore

Bloodaxe Books

About the book:

To be alive is to be inside the wave, always travelling until it breaks and is gone. These poems are concerned with the borderline between the living and the dead – the underworld and the human living world – and the exquisitely intense being of both. They possess a spare, eloquent lyricism as they explore the bliss and anguish of the voyage.

About the author:

Helen Dunmore was a poet, novelist, short story and children’s writer. Her poetry books have been given the Poetry Book Society Choice and Recommendations and won several prizes including the Cardiff International Poetry Prize, the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award and the Signal Poetry Award. Her poem ‘The Malarkey’ won the 2010 National Poetry Competition. She published three books of short stories andfifteen novels - most recently, Birdcage Walk in 2017. She died in June 2017.

What the judges said:

“An astonishing set of poems – a final, great achievement.”

Judges

Shortlist, selected from a total of 86 entries:

Previous Poetry Award winners include:

Previous Books of the Year

Luan Goldie – Winner of the Costa Short Story Award 2017 forTwo Steak Bakes and Two Chelsea Buns

About the story:

A woman considers all the things she could do with her day - and decidesto have lunch with her Dad.

About the author:

Luan Goldie is a primary school teacher and formerly a business journalist. She has written several short stories and was shortlisted for the Grazia/Orange Prize First Chapter competition in 2012. Last year she was chosen to take part in the Almasi League, an Arts Council-funded mentorship programme for emerging writers of colour.

She has recently completed her first novel, a multi-character drama based on the Bijlmer air disaster, in which a plane crashed into a council block. She lives in London.